Playlists
Playlists are lists of files which enable playback in a more customizable way than the method of selecting tracks to play from the library. Internet stream addresses, videos and audiobooks can all appear in playlists, as well as music files. MusicBee offers three types of playlists: * (or Static Playlists) * * These can be organised into playlist folders, which can be nested. Playlists add a lot of versatility to your playback options. The three primary types are described below. Playlists AKA static playlists (to differentiate them from the other two). The content of static playlists is determined entirely by the user, who must add and remove tracks manually. If tracks are dragged onto a playlist or sent to a playlist, they will appear at the bottom of the list. Play order is an important aspect of static playlists, and shuffling the list or sorting tracks by a certain tag will not change the Play order number (#), unless you choose to update the play order (Right-Click > List > Update Play Order), whereby the tracks will be renumbered sequentially in their position. Instead of a delete option in the Right-Click menu, tracks in a playlist offer Remove, which can also be accessed by pressing delete on the keyboard. You will be asked if you wish to remove the track from the playlist or delete the file itself. A playlist can be deleted with the option of deleting all files in it too. This gives playlists a useful "Recycle Bin"-like function, if needed. Playlists will display a default set of fields (columns), unless you specify otherwise. "Right-Click > Edit Playlist" enables you to choose to display "custom fields for this playlist only", so you can add or remove columns to customize the playlist. The dialogue box with these options also provides the option of choosing a view (Artwork, Album and Tracks or Track Detail) which will be specific to that playlist, or to display as the "Configure Layout" button (left of the search box) is set. When an option other than "default" is chosen, the view options under "Configure Layout" are frozen. Lastly, the "description" text box alters the tooltip that appears when hovering over the playlist. file:Static Playlist Options.png Auto-Playlists Auto-Playlists use rules to populate a list. Tracks cannot be dragged to form a new play order, and even after shuffling or sorting by tags, this order cannot be saved like static playlists can. However, auto-playlists can be saved in their present order as a static playlist, enabling preservation of a certain play order (Right-Click > List > Save as Library Playlist). When an Auto-Playlist is created, you are presented with the following dialogue box: file:Default Auto-Playlist Opttions.png Naming the playlist is not possible at this point, but can be done once all of the rules are saved. The "music track source" is self explanatory, but observe that playlist folders can be selected under playlist and network shares can be used under folders. "Display using view" and "description" work identically to their function in the options for static playlists (explained above). If you tick the option for "filter out duplicates..." in the auto-playlist dialogue, the playlist chooses, by default, the best quality file of duplicates. It chooses lossless over lossy, then m4a, and if the rest are of the same format then the highest bitrate file. The option to shuffle the playlist means it will shuffle the play order every time it is played, regardless of whether you have shuffle on in the player control panel. When set to "do not shuffle", enabling shuffle in the player will override this. Rules The most important piece of an auto-playlist is the rules which define it. If no level of rule complexity is enough to remove or add certain files, you can also add and remove files manually, the same way you would add or remove files in a static playlist. If you later change your mind about files you added or removed, edit the playlist and click "Add Files" or "Remove Files" as appropriate. All you need to do is delete the line for the file you want to restore to its normal state. Here are some guides for creating specific auto-playlists: *Advanced Auto-Playlist *Best of Year Playlist Playlist Mixers Playlist Mixers produce a shuffled list of tracks, but allow you to use rules to constrain the randomness. They also allow you to weight the rules. They produce great lists for exploring various parts of your library, allowing you to control where gets more attention. The rules are immediately recognisable as the same type used in Auto-Playlists. Firstly, we'll look at the "track selection criteria". New criteria are added either using the + buttons or the "Add Criteria" button. The + buttons will insert criteria below the row whose + you clicked. The - button deletes that criterion. Instructions for creating rules are given above in the section on Auto-Playlists. Like Auto-Playlists, conditions can be added to refine rules. The number of tracks in each cycle of the playlist will be the total of the number in the "track count" column, so the number assigned to each row can be seen more like a proportion than an exact number (because Playlist Mixers are designed to be listened to for as many cycles as you like). In the above example, "The Beatles" will make up 7th of the tracks I will listen to during my experience of this Mixer. I will hear 3 times the number of classical tracks to Beatles tracks. The "gap before same artist can repeat" box doesn't apply across cycles, so you may still hear the same artist consecutively sometimes. At the end of the cycle, MB automatically generates x new tracks (where "x" is the total of the "track count" column) again. These appear in the Now Playing list, and can be manipulated. Category:Collection Management